His film about hunger protester Bobby Sands has received largely rave reviews, but as Remembrance Sunday approaches, artist Steve McQueen has other political objectives on his mind. Queen and Country, a collection of stamps bearing the faces of soldiers who died fighting in Iraq, will travel next month to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Yet the work is still not complete, McQueen says, and won't be until Royal Mail agrees to print the stamps and release them into circulation.

"The real work was to get the stamps made," he said this week. "The idea was that, by making them, anyone and everyone could participate. It's not a sculpture catching dust." The campaign has been supported by the Art Fund, whose online petition has gathered 14,000 names. But Royal Mail still refuses to get involved. "It's one of those things I don't want to let go," McQueen said.